The Best Moments from the Second Republican Presidential Debate

Last night, the Republican candidates for President gathered at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for another fight to the death televised debate on CNN in hopes of setting apart frontrunners in the 16-person field. Since the last debate, Rick Perry dropped his bid to become the Commander-in-Chief while Carly Fiorina’s performance in the last debate made her rise significantly in public opinion. CNN prepared for this debate like the Super Bowl, and the highlight reels certainly make it seem just like that. Check out the most notable moments from last night’s debate, including Fiorina gaining serious favor, and always unfiltered Donald Trump being put on the defensive quite often—when he was attacking Jeb Bush.

In the earlier debate, Bobby Jindal took on Twinkies and Obama in the same sentence.

Literally seconds after bashing Donald Trump for just about everything, Jindal turned his rage onto President Obama for not using the term “radical Islam.” He took specific concern with the President’s desire to remove Trans Fat. Yes, Twinkies were name-dropped in a presidential debate.

Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham went at it.

Another highlight from the early debate was when Senators Rick Santorum and Lindsey Graham got into a war of words after Graham spoke of his immigration plan. When Santorum felt called out, he went to defend himself and Senator Graham continuously cut him off, refusing to let him have his moment.

Oh, and Lindsey Graham is ready to turn up.

We would say that Lindsey Graham stole the spotlight…but there were only four people on stage anyway. While recalling Ronald Reagan drinking with Tip O’Neill, Graham mentioned that the first thing he would do as President is have us drink more. We’re holding you to that, sir.

From the big-kid-pants debate, Jeb Bush was not pleased with the Donald.

Trump has basically talked smack about every person on that stage in one way or another, but fellow candidate Jeb Bush took specific offense to Trump channeling Bush’s Mexican-born wife in terms of immigration policy. Jeb demanded that Trump apologize, to which he obviously declined because he’s Donald Trump and he says whatever the f-ck he wants to.

Everyone challenged Donald Trump’s power all night.

Scott Walker already infamously said, “We don’t need an Apprentice in the White House,” early on in the debate, which caused the reality TV star to get on the defensive and attack Walker’s record as Governor of Wisconsin.

But Trump barked back hard, too.

When Jeb Bush claimed that the Donald tried to use him to get casinos in Florida, his response was basically: “No, because it would have happened if I wanted it.” The two then began sparring and interrupting one another when the topic of campaign finance reform sprung up.

Basically, Trump and Bush fought all night, and had an awkward low-five.

Oh, and Mike Huckabee auditioned to be the moderator next time.

If you forgot that the former Governor is also a minister, you will be quickly reminded when you watch him introduce his fellow candidates on stage including referring to Donald Trump as “Mr. T,” since he calls everyone fools.

Many candidates had a case of “Hillary on the Brain.”

We’re not sure what the prescription is for this but Fiorina definitely had her sights set on taking down Hillary Clinton, the only other female candidate for president. Governor Chris Christie also said that he wants to prosecute her himself.

Trump called Fiorina beautiful.

After being called out for his sexist statements to Rolling Stone about Carly Fiorina’s appearance, she responded by saying American’s heard what he said loud and clear. Donald’s response was an awkward attempt at saying that she’s beautiful after all. The man has a way with the ladies.

All in all, Fiorina won the night.

Proving like last time that her debate skills are not to be challenged, Fiorina had a consistent and clear message that appealed to a large portion of the conservative base. Reasoning to the emotional core of her party, she doesn’t want to change the $10 or $20 bill, she’s looking to defund Planned Parenthood, and she’s positioning herself as an alternative to Donald Trump.

And her emotional appeal was the most memorable moment of the night.

While Rand Paul discusses drug laws as something the government shouldn’t interfere with and Bush channeled his own toking-up days, Fiorina brought an opposing side of the argument in bringing up the drug-related death of her step-daughter Lori Ann as a catalyst for criminal justice reform and her desire to increase drug education for young people.